Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: how Should Physicians Respond?

The authors discuss the continuing efforts to enlist physicians in the practice of euthanasia & assisted suicide in the United States. They say that perhaps the greatest confusion in the whole issue lies in the failure to distinguish between active & passive euthanasia & they argue that there are significant moral & legal differences between mercy killing & allowing a patient to die. They believe that physicians can provide alternatives to active euthanasia & assisted suicide. (9 refs.)